HSBC Building–No, Not That HSBC Building–Sells for $26.3 M.

A dignified-looking Upper East Side building belonging to HSBC Bank has traded for a solid $26.3 million, according to city records.

The Upper East-Side based Friedland Properties bought the two-story red-brick Madison Avenue building on Oct. 16. A representative of Friedland Properties told The Observer that the building would continue to be a bank.

The property, at 1002 Madison Avenue, between 77th and 78th streets, last traded in 1980, for an unspecified amount of money.

Exciting though this trade may be in what is largely a somnolent real estate market, it’s not the HSBC deal that many in the real estate industry had once hoped for.

This year, HSBC tried to move its American headquarters to a 280,000-square-foot block at Larry Silverstein’s 7 World Trade Center. The move would have given Mr. Silverstein yet another marquee tenant, while allowing the bank to liquidate its building at 452 Fifth Avenue for an anticipated $600 million. Then the economy tanked, HSBC didn’t get the price it wanted on Fifth Avenue, and it tore up its lease at 7 WTC. So it goes.